'Hellboy' sequel delivers heavenly visuals
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (three-disc special edition): "Hellboy II" is a geek's dream, a gloriously imaginative love letter to all things weird and freakish. Imagine an entire movie set inside the cantina from the original "Star Wars" - or on the main floor of Comic-Con International in San Diego - and you get a sense of what "Hellboy II" has in store.
The film continues the adventures of cigar-chomping supernatural superhero Hellboy (Ron Perlman), a demon who was raised as a human and now works for the FBI's Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. In this chapter, Hellboy and his fellow heroes - fire-controlling girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair) and fishlike telepath Abe (Doug Jones) - must battle an ancient magical race that's trying to conquer humans by resurrecting a legion of indestructible golden robots.
Director Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth") immerses us in a dazzling world of trolls, goblins and weirdos of every possible size and shape. It seems like each new scene delivers a breathtaking sight, from a hulking villain with a mace for a hand to an eerie angel of death whose wings are dotted with dozens of blinking eyes. Del Toro's imagination occasionally overwhelms his story and characters, leading to some clunky moments and diluting the film's overall dramatic impact. Still, "Hellboy II" stands as a uniquely creative and fun comic-book movie.
The three-disc DVD set (two discs of content and a third containing a downloadable copy of the film) overflows with great supplements, including an exhaustive feature-length documentary about the making of "Hellboy II." This release shows why special editions were invented. (PG-13; Universal, $34.98)
"Star Wars: The Clone Wars": Most old-school fans recoiled in horror at "The Clone Wars," but I have to admit that it offers a fun, if lightweight, computer-animated "Star Wars" fix. The story takes place between "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" and "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." Anakin Skywalker (i.e. the future Darth Vader) and Obi-wan Kenobi lead the Jedi Knights in the war against a droid army that wants to break up the Galactic Republic. "The Clone Wars," which served as a big-screen pilot for the television series now airing on Cartoon Network, is clearly geared toward younger viewers. On that level, it does its job well, delivering kinetic, well-staged battle scenes and just enough character moments. It doesn't come anywhere close to the original trilogy in terms of quality, but I don't think it was meant to. The single-disc DVD, which is the one I screened, includes a commentary with director Dave Filoni and crew. There's also a two-disc set available. (PG; Warner Home Video, $28.98)
"Sunset Boulevard" (Paramount Centennial Collection): To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Paramount Pictures has launched a new DVD line of the studio's classic films. Among the initial wave is 1950s "Sunset Boulevard," Billy Wilder's acidic, darkly funny skewering of Hollywood. The movie, about the relationship between a hack screenwriter and a washed-up, nearly insane silent-film star, hasn't lost any of its humor or bite, and it looks fantastic on this DVD. The two-disc set also offers a smorgasbord of great supplements. If the rest of the Centennial Collection is as good as this release, movie-lovers have cause to rejoice. (NR; Paramount, $24.99)